Keeping Score: February is the cruelest month

By
Tony Leodora, The Times Herald

Monday, February 25, 2013

CLOSING THE NOTEBOOK on February ... and, once again, noting that it is my least favorite month of the year. The football season is over. Baseball has not yet begun. And college basketball is just waiting for March Madness to being. And golf? ... Fuggetaboutit.

OK, so some sports fans will be quick to point out that the extravaganza of the stock car racing circuit, the Daytona 500, is held in February. How excited could I possibly get about a sport that does nothing but turn to the left. It must be the favorite sport of those other Times Herald columnists — Gordon Glantz and Tom Lees.

At this moment, a great number of readers are scratching their heads. But those who know the derivation of the event are nodding in an understanding way ... if not agreement.

A few years ago, when the Montgomery County Amateur Championship and its Junior Scholarship Fund, desperately needed an event to kickoff the buildup to the event, I volunteered my 50th birthday party as a theme.

It was actually a few years after my 50th birthday, but vanity kept me from celebrating when I hit that milestone. A few years later the age of 50 didn’t feel so bad ... and I realized I had missed a good party. Thus, the event was born and — with the help of the fabulous Chatterband, the management and staff at Westover CC and a lot of golf friendly businesses throughout this golf crazy county — tradition began.

If Willie Nelson can throw his own birthday party each year, so can I.

This year about 500 of my best friends will join me in rocking Westover, along with one of the area’s best dance bands. A number of guest singers will join the band throughout the night. And, yours truly might be persuaded to get up and sing a song ... or six. Thankfully, bandleader Paul Martone is a very obliging soul ... and lead singer Amy Caparo can cover a multitude of sins.

Haven’t received your invitation yet? Just call. I have one waiting for you.

* * *SPECIAL THANKS goes out to the restaurants and food purveyors who make up the Taste of Montgomery County portion of my annual birthday party. They donate one of their specialty dishes and the patrons munch to their heart’s content.

Some of these restaurants and food purveyors have not only been feeding patrons at the annual birthday party but also supplying their delicacies to the closing celebration of the Montgomery County Amateur Championship in August for the past 11 years.

They deserve a tip of the hat ... and the support of golfers throughout the county.

* * *ANOTHER TIP of the hat goes out to Norristown Ambassador Hank Cisco for the feature story on him and his wife that appeared in last Saturday’s Philadelphia Inquirer. It was a heartwarming tale.

And, it puts that publication 1,251 stories behind The Times Herald ... in the amount of stories that have been written about the colorful character who always has been known as One of Montgomery County’s Finest.

* * *PARTING SHOT — It was only days after the presidential election that this column called Fox News on the carpet for an awful job of coverage leading up to the re-election of President Obama. Election analysis by the two main Fox analysts — Dick Morris and Carl Rove — was one-sided, uninformed and misleading.

It wasn’t long before Fox heard the criticisms and fired Morris from its coverage. Rove is still hanging in, but in a much more limited role.

Replacements appeared this week in the forms of former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown and former presidential candidate Herman Cain. The station also added former Congressman Dennis Kucinich to its analysis team.

The station that lauds itself for “fair and balanced” coverage certainly has taken steps to bolster that opinion. Cain is a staunch conservative. Brown, although also a Republican, is regarded as a moderate, and Kucinich is a champion of the left.

Of the three, Kucinich has always had the reputation of being guided by principles, instead of merely marching the party line of the Democrats. Brown’s first few engagements have sounded strangely political — afraid to say anything too controversial.

Cain has already emerged as the new shining light of the station. His incredible candor and propensity to get right to the point of an issue is totally refreshing. The former corporate CEO still seems best-suited to running something ... like, maybe a country.

Golf Services, a golf promotion company that includes his work as host of the weekly GolfTalk Live radio show on WNTP 990-AM and editor of GolfStyles magazine. He is former sports editor of The Times Herald. Send comments to tlgolfservices@aol.com.